Hillers Chapter 6

1
Hillers Chapter 6

• Therefore I will Punish You
• Meg Zumbrun

2
The Covenant and the Prophets

• Why are the prophets so sparing of the word
  covenant?
• Covenant occupied a very minor place in prophetic
  thought.
• Parallels between treaties and the bible
  (Esaraddon, Ashurnirari, Assyrian, Sefire
  treaties)

3
To Know

• Yada to know
• to understand
• to sleep with a woman
• Near Eastern Kings to recognize as a legitimate
  suzerain or vassal treaty
• recognize
• Be subject, loyal to

4
Lawsuit of God or Covenantal Lawsuit

• Yahweh is depicted as taking people to his
  court
• A call to heaven and earth or mountains and hills
  to serve as witness
• Summons to the defendant, Israel
• Yahweh states his case then pronounces their guilt

5
Isaiah 12-3

• Hear, O heavens, and listen, O earth, for the
  Lord speaks Sons have I raised and reared, but
  they have disowned me! An ox knows its owner,
  and an ass, its masters manger But Israel does
  not know, my people has not understood.

6

• Heaven and earth (originally gods) were part of
  Yahwehs council
• Sons of God who were other heavenly beings
  ruled with God
• The relationship between Yahweh and Israel was a
  bond between partners
• Prophets were thought to be familiar with
  concepts and terms having to do with covenants.

7
Authors use OT imagery

• Blake, My heaven is a brass, my earth is iron,
  my moon a clod of clay
• Deut 2823, The sky over your heads will be like
  bronze and the earth under your feet like iron

8
Curses Prophetic Imagery of Doom

• Echoes the curses associated with treaties
• Curses
• God will break a mans weapon, usually a bow
• Removal of all joyous sounds
• Men and women will eat their children because of
  famine

9
Example Leviticus

• Conditions
• If you reject my statutes, and loathe my laws so
  that you do not perform all my commandments and
  thus break my covenant
• Curse
• Then I will send among you wild animals, which
  will make you bereft of children, and destroy
  your cattle, and make you few in number and your
  ways desolate

10
Hillers Conclusion

• Why do the prophets use covenant so sparsely?
• Covenant was no longer the practical
  constitution of Israel
• Israel is now a monarchy with God as their
  divinely chosen King
• Now it was for use of religious ideas unlike
  before